Allied-occupied Germany

Allied-occupied Germany was the post-World War II military occupation of Germany by the Western Allies (the United States, United Kingdom, and France) and the Soviet Union from 8 May 1945 to 23 May/7 October 1949. The US Army occupied Bavaria and Hesse in southern Germany; the British Army occupied North Rhine-Westphalia, Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, and Lower Saxony; the French Army occupied the Rhineland; and the Red Army occupied Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg.

The Allies and the Soviets were divided by the "Inner German border", a heavily-fortified frontier that consisted of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps, and minefields, and the frontier also served to prevent Germans from the Soviet-occupied areas from fleeing to the Allied-occupied western areas. There were a few peculiarities with occupation deployments in Germany; the city of Berlin, an enclave surrounded by Soviet-occupied territory, was occupied by all four nations, while the Americans also occupied the city of Bremen, completely surrounded by British-occupied territoriees.

The military occupation would come to an end in 1949, with the Allies creating the democratic republic of West Germany (with its capital at West Berlin, administrative center at Bonn) on 23 May 1949, while the Soviets created the communist East Germany (with its capital at East Berlin). Tensions between the two sides were high at points, especially during the Berlin Blockade of 1948-1949, and the Allies even drafted plans for "Operation Unthinkable", an attack on Soviet forces in Germany. However, no all-out war would occur, and a "Cold War" would instead set in as Europe was divided by an "Iron Curtain" that divided the Germanies and split Europe between capitalism and communism. Despite the end of the Allied administration of Germany, both US and Soviet troops would remain stationed in West and East Germany, respectively, until the end of the Cold War in 1991, and US military installations would continue to operate even after that.